Searching for life outside our planet has long fascinated the human race. Yuri Milner is a man who has always been interested in science, but may think about it more than the average person. In his recent work, Eureka Manifesto, Milner explored the true mission for our civilization and what that means for us now.
Delving into everything from the Scientific Revolution to the ultimate fate of the universe, he attempts to work out some of the most basic questions about how we should all move forward into the future. He’s not alone, either. Plenty of extremely wealthy people, like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, are doing what they can to further space exploration. We look at their approach and what kind of impact they’re making on the wider culture.
The Eureka Manifesto: The Mission for Our Civilization
Penned by Yuri Milner, the goal of the Eureka Manifesto is to reach people who care about how we’re preparing for the challenges of tomorrow. He wants to encourage people to take steps now that will safeguard our world in the future. He states that the mission of our civilization is to keep learning and exploring, however far we can go. This is a crucial principle for Milner, particularly when you consider the rate of progress over the past few millennia. Even now, so many centuries after Galileo, we still have much to learn about what’s out there and how we can use our resources to build a better tomorrow.
He’s doing what he can now to accelerate the process. For instance, he’s using his Breakthrough Foundation to make trips that public space agencies like NASA don’t have the capacity to take. One of his most famous announcements was his plans to visit one of Saturn’s icy moons. Known as the Enceladus Mission (named after the satellite), he’s doing what he can to improve our body of research, so next-generation scientists can build on what he discovered. He’s not doing this entirely on his own, though. NASA has agreed to provide reviewers and feedback for his design, so he can be certain that he and his team are making the right preparations.
Also read: When Will People Finally Reach Mars?
Billionaires in Space
From a colony on Mars to commercial space hotels, billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have made headlines for making proclamations and sending their own aircraft into space. While each one has their own idea of what exploration looks like, the idea is that a spacefaring civilization recognizes the power of the future rather than the fear of the unknown. Elon Musk wants to put astronauts on Mars by 2029. Milner wants to build an interstellar probe and search for microbes on Saturn’s moon. Bezos wants to have people stay at his B&B in the sky and experience the unknown.
The exploration and understanding of the universe isn’t limited to billionaires by any stretch. It’s up to everyone to discover humanity’s place in the cosmos, which means coming to terms with the existential risks that might keep us from reaching the far future. It’s heady stuff when it comes down to it, particularly when you consider that the Eureka Manifesto grapples with some of the deepest questions about who we are and what we’re doing here.
For someone like Yuri Milner, he sees the mission for our civilization as the continuation of the story of cosmic and Darwinian evolution that brought us here. For all of humankind’s faults, we and perhaps we alone are capable of taking this mission to the next level. He lays out his plan in his works and hopes that everyone will be able to support progress in whatever way they can.
